Redesignation: design inspiration

Tuesday, September 27, 2016

As many of you know, my husband and I packed our family up and moved down to Amelia Island for a little part-time island living. I feel like a real-life version of House Hunters, or one of those shows where those couples decide to go live on an island and escape the freezing place they live. Tony's landscaping business is still running full tilt in Pittsburgh while we're here, and we've been taking turns working with a local home renovator till we find more permanent avenues of income. I still have my real estate license in Pittsburgh, but I've yet to decide if I'll get it in Florida.

Here's a little glimpse of our life so far in pictures...

Things I've been loving so far:

-very little traffic

-beautiful weather

-walks on the beach

-bike riding out my front door to the beach or town

-closeness to my parents

-my kids are already saying "y'all"

Things I miss about Pittsburgh so far:

-friends/family

-owning my house and being able to do things to it without having to ask :)

-all the hustle and bustle of city life, access to museums, fountains, more variety in restaurants

Thursday, May 5, 2016

I have the privilege of listing a friend's place in McKees Rocks. If you know anyone looking for an awesome space to live, work and play, this is your ticket. It's zoned R-2 so realistically you could split into two units, rent one out and live in the other. BUT, as it is, it's a super-creative place that has a huge open living room (currently used as a recording space) and kitchen downstairs, then loft style living upstairs. There's an industrial, yet cozy feel to this house.

Come join me for an open house Sunday, May 15th from 11-2pm and see for yourself.

Friday, April 29, 2016

This is our little South Side abode. It's rented from August 15-December 15, 2016, and will be available again to rent January 1, 2017- May 2017. Rent is $1800/ month fully furnished, and that includes all utilities, internet, tv, etc. There are public steps that allow easy access to the flats. Parking in front of house for one car, and plenty more spots at the park down a few houses away.

Friday, March 18, 2016

I was inspired by this article in HGtv Magazine where this blogger painted ikea pillow covers to look like designer pillows. I'm not crafty, but I figured I could handle this and I happened to have some spare Ikea pillow case covers on hand. I think they're like $4 at ikea.

Monday, March 14, 2016

I've got kitchen renovations on the brain, so naturally when Big Chill invited me to do an inspiration board using the Pantone colors of 2016 as inspiration, I got a little giddy. I've been eyeing these stoves for a while and the pink lemonade color has always been one of my favorites.

Before testing out my own style board, I always thought these stoves were typecast to a strictly retro-cottage theme. As you can see here, both inspiration boards have a more modern, chic feel to them. While I love myself a good beach house as much as the next person, I'm really digging the incorporation of the colorful pink stove with the sophistication of all the classic black and white. It's very much what I'm trying to accomplish in my own kitchen...sort of a French inspired grotto with a touch of pizzazz.

This next one is really my favorite and jives more with using both the pink and the blue colors together. I love pulling in hues of pink with fabrics, and I can just picture a vase full of peonies on those soapstone counters. I'm also a huge fan of mixing metals. I convinced myself of this a while ago, but here it just shows how you can totally get away with it. Matchy, matchy out. Mixing in.

And one more thing I learned from my mom- lamps are a must on the countertop. It adds a certain warmth that I just can't explain. Trust me.

Thursday, March 10, 2016

We're finishing up on some major renovations in our new house. We actually had a contractor come in and remove a wall in between the living room and kitchen- a job too big for us to handle on our own since it involved moving duct work and electrical. He also redid the entire bathroom for us.
My husband and I were talking the other night about it and realized we both never intended to fully gut the bathroom. Like so many renovation stories you hear, one thing lead to another and before we knew it, we were down to the bare studs. There was such bad mold and water damage under the tile, we really had no choice once we saw it. The good news is it's done, and we didn't have to do the work! Yay!

Bathroom Before Gut Job

Bathroom During Gut Job

Bathroom Completely Ripped Out, Re-plumbed, New Window Installed

My original pick for the floor didn't match AT ALL once I laid it next to the shower tile.

I was so bummed because the tiles I picked totally looked right together in the store, but once I got them in my bathroom under my lighting (and not in the big store), they clashed. Both of them have that marble look, and it was just way too busy. Thankfully I caught it before they were cemented to the floor, ran to Lowes that night, and lugged 100 lbs of new tile back up to the bathroom.

I'm pretty pumped about these floors. Remember when I told you I picked the cheapest floor option Home Depot had? These were it, at only 79 cents/sq. ft! I was second guessing myself, but I really liked them regardless of the price. Laminate flooring has come a long way.

Back upstairs the hard wood floors are a little lacking in comparison. We tried sanding them with a belt sander to no avail. Not wanting the expense (or the backache) of lugging in a commercial floor sander (been there, done that), I decided to paint them.

Floors before

Hallway Floors Before

First coat of floor paint.

Looks like it's gonna take a few more coats of floor paint before these look right.

So there we have it... lots of loose ends to be buttoned up before we can move in, but we're getting there. I'm hoping my next post will be the finished product.